The Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis proudly announces the NNPN Rolling World Premiere of a theatrical production by Caridad Svich, Guapa, in the Frank and Katrina Basile Theatre, opening Thursday, January 3, and running through Sunday, January 20, 2013, with the last two performances in Spanish.

The NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN), the country’s alliance of non-profit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Guapa is its 30th Rolling World Premiere: Caridad Svich’s Guapawill receive three productions through the Network’s Continued Life of New Plays Fund in the 2012/13 season, the Network’s 15th. Guapabegan its Rolling World Premiere at Borderlands Theater (Tucson, AZ, October 5 – 21), followed by the Phoenix Theatre performances, then ending at Miracle Theatre Group (Portland, OR, March 22 – April 13).

“The story is about Guapa’s dream, a dream her mother worries can’t be achieved, but one the others in her family hope will be realized,” stated Phoenix Theatre Producing Director Bryan Fonseca, who also directs the play. “The play is centered on a Latino family; however, the family could really be from anywhere in the country. Universally, all families struggle with the same issues as Guapa – finding where you fit in – in your family and in the world.”

ABOUT THE PLAY

In a small Texas town long fractured by class struggle and racism, a single mother named Roly works to give her makeshift family a shot at their dreams. Together they adopt a young woman named Guapa (“beautiful”), who wants nothing more than to play women’s soccer. With her hallmark lyricism and political commitment, Svich has written a border-fantasy filled with magical sports dreams, graffiti, birds in flight, indigenous history, trauma, recovery, and the possibility of a better life.

ABOUT CARIDAD SVICH

Caridad Svich is a US Latina playwright, translator, lyricist and editor whose works have been presented across the US and abroad at diverse venues, including the Denver Center, Mixed Blood Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Repertorio Espanol, 59East59, McCarren Park Pool, 7 Stages, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, Teatro Mori (Santiago, Chile), ARTheater (Cologne), and Edinburgh Fringe Festival/UK. She received the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for her play The House of the Spirits, based on the novel by Isabel Allende, and has been short-listed for the PEN Award in Drama three times, including in 2010 for Instructions for Breathing. Her key works include 12 Ophelias, Alchemy of Desire/Dead Man’s Blues, Any Place But Here, Iphigenia…A Rave Fable, Fugitive Pieces, In the Timeof the Butterflies (based on Julia Alvarez’s novel), Magnificent Waste, and the multimedia collaboration The Booth Variations. An alumna of New Dramatists, she holds an MFA in Theatre-Playwriting from UCSD, and has taught creative writing and playwriting at Bard College, Barnard College, Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Yale School of Drama.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM“(Playwright Caridad) Svich mixes a little magical realism with the nitty gritty of a tough life for a barely-making-it group of people.”- Arizona Daily Star

TICKETS

It is the goal of the Phoenix Theatre to be the best ticket value in town for live, professional theatre. The following are ticket prices for Guapa in the Frank and Katrina Basile Stage at the Phoenix:

$28 for all adults
All remaining performances after opening weekend (Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays)

$18 for individuals
Age 21 and under

PERFORMANCES

Phoenix FlexPass is the best theatre deal in Indy and will only be available through October 31, 2012. Buying a FlexPass is like getting one regular-priced ticket for free. A FlexPass for $115 gets a patron five vouchers that can be traded in for any combination of tickets for any of the 2012-2013 productions.

January 3 Thursday 7:00 pm

January 4 Friday (Producer’s Party) 8:00 pm

January 5 Saturday 8:00 pm

January 6 Sunday 2:00 pm

KATRINA BASILE REALTOR CHEAPSEATS ENTIRE FIRST WEEKEND

January 10 Thursday 7:00 pm

January 11 Friday 8:00 pm

January 12 Saturday 8:00 pm

January 13 Sunday 2:00 pm

January 17 Thursday 7:00 pm

January 18 Friday 8:00 pm

January 19 Saturday (Spanish Performance) 8:00 pm

January 20 Sunday (Spanish Performance) 2:00 pm

ABOUT THE PHOENIX THEATRE“The Phoenix Theatre has cornered the market on hip new works.” — Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

The Phoenix Theatre is Indiana’s only professional contemporary theatre, and has presented productions to challenge and entertain the Indianapolis community for 30 years. An Equity house, the Theatre presents the Midwest and Indiana premieres of many popular Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, and has presented more than 85 world premieres in its quarter century. The Phoenix operates the 130-seat proscenium Livia and Steve Russell Theatre as well as the 65-seat cabaret-style black box Frank & Katrina Basile Stage. The Phoenix Pub, located in the Basile Stage, serves beer, wine, coffee, soft drinks, water, and treats, and patrons may take all refreshments into either theatre. Both venues are housed along with administrative offices in a renovated 1907 church in downtown Indianapolis’ historic Chatham Arch neighborhood, part of the Mass Ave Arts & Theatre District. The Phoenix Theatre is a member of the National New Play Network and the League of Indianapolis Theatres, and is supported by the Indiana Arts Commission, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as local corporate and foundation funders and more than 400 individual donors.